Review Summary: Russian Progressive Melo-Death- Bout' time!
Out of the many nations of Europe Russia is without a doubt one of the most fascinating. It's history is filled with sinister villains (Ivan the Terrible, Stalin), unexplained mysteries (Rasputin healing the hemophiliac royal heir, Alexe) and the country itself consists mostly of a frozen, uninhabitable wasteland. Russia is virtually the ideal scene for a thriving metal community and yet, it is one that has never been noticed. Whether it be the nation's deeply rooted beliefs in traditionalism or the poor promotion jobs of the Eastern Euopean labels, the fact still remains that it's pretty damn hard to find even a single notable metal band of any kind from this fearsome world power. Intrigued by this anomaly, I hunted through pages and pages of Google searches until I came across a promising sounding Progressive Death Metal band by the name of Hatecraft.
Hatecraft is a bizarrely unknown group that plays a very appealing style of modern Melo Death with a strong progressive influence. One of the most impressive and distinguishing features of the group's sound is how it really paints the mental image of the desolate Russian landscape in the listener's mind. The mix of icy harmonized leads, deep growling bass, sharp, hailstorm riffs, and ethereal keyboard lines creates an undeniable sense of ambiance and melancholic beauty that courses throughout the entire record. These keyboards are quite prominent on nearly every song however, they are still used quite tastefully providing just enough melodic subtlety in the forms of background choir voices, strings, and futuristic synths to keep things interesting without drawing all the attention from the other members. Most importantly they avoid the infamously hooky "Christmas Music" sound or the equally clichéd "frost-bitten" Black Metal style.
The other band members follow in suit. Moderation seems to play a very important role in the band's ethos; all of the members are obviously very proficient at the respective instruments, but none of them go out of their way to prove themselves, in a few words, the music speaks for itself. The riffs are great and have a very epic feel, and the solos are brilliant too. The guitarists can clearly play their asses off, but generally focus much more on melody and suiting the band's sound over all. The ones in "The Punisher" and "Generation of Obscenities" are melodic perfection. The drums while not breathtaking are also quite effective, but far and away the greatest surprise instrumentally is the bass which is entirely audible throughout the whole record and throws in some very cool fills to boot especially in the intro of “Demon of Mine”. Hearing this dark underbelly of a sound that the bass crafts, makes me wonder why so many other metal bands forsake such an important instrument.
The vocals are without a doubt one of the group's greatest assets and span a very evil and heartbroken death roar to a soaring clean tone. The group's bassist handles the harsh vocals and does a great job. He has a fairly unique voice which is more so a dry, gritty rasp than the typical monochromatic growl which many bands use. If anything this only adds to the distinctly "cold" nature of their sound. He is also capable of getting up to a nearly black metal shriek which he uses sparingly. These vocals hold up beautifully against the guitarist's amazing clean voice which actually reminds me a lot of Dimmu Borgir's Vortex. It always bugs me when a band underuses their talents as Dimmu does with Simen, so hearing someone with as remarkable a voice and range as this band's clean singer get his fair share of show time only works to their benefit. While some of the higher notes he hits possibly borderline Power Metal, he manages to deliver them with a enough emotion to override any unwanted queso.
If I can think of one relatively substantial complaint I have about the band it's a certain lack of originality that becomes noticeable after a few listens. I can think of many metal genres that are far more trite and played-out than Progressive Death (deathcore anyone?) but still, anyone familiar with any of the bands I have recommended on the side, won't find too many surprises here. All the usual traits of the style are present: the mix of harsh and clean vocals, the proggy leads and riffs, the polyrhythmic drumming, the obligatory acoustic interlude, and the seven minute closing opus; it's all here. Granted, the group pulls all these things off fantastically and with a certain level of class and restraint that is rare for their genre, but it can still lose a little of it's long term appeal because of this flaw.
Even if Hatecraft won't be hailed as ground-breakers anytime soon, they have still produced an album of extremely well crafted prog-inflected death metal that rocks from start to finish (well maybe except for the opener which is somewhat of a skippable cheese convention). If Hatecraft is any reflection of the Russian metal scene as a whole then it looks like I've got some more searching to do.
